It’s Very Cold Outside (Part 2) Энд Маш Их Хуйтэн Гадаа Байх

            Today, December 21^st, marks the first day of winter, the winter solstice, and the beginning of the Mongolian tradition of the nine nines. The darkest day of the year is upon us with a meager 8 hours of direct sunlight. The sun stays on a southern course that doesn’t get much higher than a 50 degree angle with the horizon.

Part of my walk to school

The nine nines refers to 9 sets of 9 days that make up the winter and start on first day of winter. It is a traditional way for measuring the cold and hints that the coldest set of nines is toward the end of January.

The First Nine: Milk vodka congeals and freezes

The Second Nine: Vodka congeals and freezes

The Third Nine: Tail of a three-year-old ox freezes

The Fourth Nine: Horns of a four-year-old ox freezes

The Fifth Nine: Boiled rice no longer congeals and freezes

The Sixth Nine: Roads become visible from under the snow and ice

The Seventh Nine: Hilltops appear

The Eighth Nine:  Ground becomes damp

The Ninth Nine: Warmer days set in

Another part of my walk to school.
Here we can see Chinggis's tallest tower still under construction

            Every now and then at various trainings, we have the pleasure of seeing and hearing the PC safety officer of Eastern Asia. Having completed her service many years ago in the Philippians, she always ends her speech with this story.

            Supposedly every Friday night when the PCVs of various tropical and subtropical islands gather to enjoy each other’s company and speak their native language, they always pause with their first drinks in the air and raise a toast to the dedicated and hardworking PCVs in Mongolia. We are always assured that the toast flows something like, “To the PCVs in Mongolia they are the real heroes/MVP.” I tend to think that the toast is more along the lines of “No matter how hard it is on this island at least we aren’t freezing our … off in Mongolia.”

            Regardless of what is said of our service the cold truth remains that it is very cold here. However, I am not complaining. I have grown accustom to the first chill and find that I quite enjoy not being hot. This is a healthy mentality to take while walking a mile in -20 Fahrenheit. “Man it is really cold outside! But at least I’m not really hot right now!... At least I’m not in the Philippians on a tropical island with warm beaches, blue water, and cold drinks…”

My school, and a frozen Russian style play yard that has monkey
 bars almost no child could reach.

            In November around thanksgiving the snow fell with no intention of retreating until spring. The world has become a winter wonderland that grows quickly grey and black with the dusting of coal fires. Also in November, we experienced some unusually cold weather with our (Sally and I’s) record low so far. It was a chilling week with highs around zero and lows that dipped easily into the -30’s in the wee hours of the morning. Fortunately Sally and I had already purchased our winter parkas in UB by this time and were perfectly able to handle the extremes.

            In December the weather has gotten a little warmer. We have been consistently seeing highs in mid-teens with lows around -10. (all temperature in this blog is in Fahrenheit. Mongolia uses Celsius, but it is not a gauge that I am accustomed too.) While these temperatures have been manageable it looks like we have our coldest days so far in the end of the month, with highs that are still below zero.

Temujin Complex School's secondary school building

            My system for dealing with this weather is to prepare for it with the clothing I choose to wear in the morning. If I feel cold I apply more clothing the next day to counterbalance. So far the system has worked. All of my walks to school, while chilly, have been pleasant. One particularly cold morning in November (-25ish), I realize that my eyelashes were sticking together when I blinked and that ice had formed on my beard. This led to the “Darth Vader” face projection.

            If the temperature is -20, my dress consists of: underwear, long underwear pants, long underwear shirt, second short-sleeved shirt, pants/slacks, button down shirt, tie, sweater, wool socks, hiking boots, scarf, sock hat, face mask (white cheap breathing mask, creates barrier between breath, cold, and face), stretching face covering (Thanks, Claire!), winter parka, and fur-lined gloves. This ensemble allows me to step out into these temperatures without really feeling the cold for about a half mile. At this point, my glasses usually fog up, and I am forced to continue the rest of the walk with them in my pocket. Dressed to handle the weather, I am never too cold.  

            The face covering is altered based the temperature and wind chill. If it is only zero or even -10 with no wind chill, I have found that I can leave my nose exposed to breathe easier and prevent fogging of glasses. Any colder and full “Darth Vader” regalia is required.

Darth Vadar protection 

            I was walking through the park the other day around noon, and I saw a pigeon sitting on the ground; so quiet, so calm. I walked up to the bird expecting it to fly away, but it did not and it was only when I was close enough to nudge it with my boot that I saw the small layer of fresh frost on its back. A sure sign that it would never move again. 

~Caleb 

Korean/American Culture Event

In Chinggis Town there are volunteers serving from South Korea as part of Korean Peace Corps program. We have often gotten together and had dinner with them, because it is fun to hang out with people from another country. Even though there is a language barrier their culture is closer to American culture than Mongolia. We depend heavily on several of them who speak English to translate for the rest of the group. Six of these volunteers are only serving four month terms and will be returning to Korea in January leaving behind one 2 year volunteer that started the same time we did. One of the four month volunteers works with my English counterparts at my school to help them with teaching classes and their English.

Sally, Kyra and I hosted the Koreans for a Thanksgiving dinner.
The Menu included green bean casserole, candied carrots, garlic mashed potatoes, and four homemade pizzas. 

Out of this friendship between the American PCVs and the Korean volunteers emerged a neat cultural event which occurred last Saturday. The event was mainly hosted by the Koreans who did most of the planning and funding, but they also included us in hosting some activities for the kids. It was a huge success. Children from all over town converged on my school’s gym to experience a mix of cultural activities that we foreigners had to offer.

The Koreans had stations with traditional food which as infinitely more flavor than Mongolian fair. They also had some games tables and a wall of pictures from their service in Mongolia.

Korean Volunteer leading children in a traditional Korean game

Station where kids can make traditional Korean kimbob
(Sushi roll with meat instead of fish)

Sally and I collaborated with Phoebe and Kyra, our site mates in Chinggis, to organize three activates. We had a Zumba stand where Kyra taught the Mongolians a mix of hip-hop and Bollywood dancing; a true representation of the cultural mixing pot that is America. Using a hand drawn map of America, Phoebe had the students throw a ball at the map and whichever state it landed on she would show pictures and information on her laptop. Our final station was a traditional carnival game where students would through a paper ball into cups of various scores. If they scored high enough I would give them a piece of candy. We were also joined by a PCV who lives only 30km from Chinggis named Ashley. She is on her second year in Mongolia and speaks almost fluent Mongolian, so she was very helpful with crowd management and explain activities to the children. 

Phoebe helping the kids at the map/cultural station

Ashley leading the ball and cup game

Kyra leading some of my school teachers in a Bollywood style of Zumba

Overall, the event was a lot of fun. It was very nice to collaborate with our Korean friends on a small project. We shall certainly miss the six that are leaving us in January, and will continue to foster  friendship with the one volunteer that will be left.

~Caleb 

IST—A Trip to UB

            Transportation in Mongolia can be difficult for some volunteers. Sally and I live 330km (207 miles) from the capital city, so our bus ride is only around 6 hours. If we wanted to save time, we could get there in 5 in a taxi, but it is more expensive. I have also grown accustomed to riding in the bus which is not at the mercy of every pothole.

            Bus riding in Mongolia, while the easiest way to travel, can have downsides. Sometimes the buses are either not heated or overheated. Roadside bathrooms can be… profoundly disturbing. It is also not uncommon to be sitting beside a mother or father with a child in his/her lap. Even with all of these problems, Sally and I are still dealing with a pretty easy half day trip to UB.

            Some volunteers are located on the other side of the country and deal with very long transportation issues. One of my friends must travel 4 hours to his Aimag Center from his soum (small village). This trip involves crossing land that has no roads in the snow and ice of winter. Once at the Aimag Center, he must board a bus for UB that travels for a solid 24 hours. Some sites are “fly sites,” but air travel can be difficult because the plane fair is as expensive as US fair, so many Mongolians would rather save money on 3 or 4 day bus trips. Roads in the country are always two-lane highways with enormous stretches of unpaved areas.  A trip to the other side of Mongolia that might take a day or two in the US by car takes 4-5 days in Mongolia.

            Even with all of these difficulties, last week the CYD and Health volunteers converged at the upstanding Park Hotel in Ulaanbaatar for our IST seminar. (Sally is a TEFL volunteer and will be attending IST in a week.) In-Service Training (IST) occurs in a volunteer’s fourth month of service. It is an opportunity to improve skills and develop working relationships with counterparts. Each volunteer brings a Mongolian CP to the training so that they can develop a project with the help of translators. It also helps the Mongolian counterparts better understand their American volunteer’s customs and odd behaviors.

            I found IST to be some of the most useful training I have received with PC. It was a week of improving relations, and helping my social worker and I understand each other. We have plans now to start a Children with Disabilities Campaign at our site now. The purpose of the Campaign would be to raise awareness among the community of persons with disabilities, and also create events that bring the children out into the community.  Our first activity will be a New Year’s (Шинэ Жил) Party for children with disabilities. There we will have games and also a discussion about upcoming trainings that we would like to offer to family and caretakers. Later next year, I am optimistic about bringing Special Olympics to Chinggis Hot. This program has been in place and run by volunteers in a number of Aimag Centers, but never in ours. Now that my counterpart and I have plans and focus, the real challenge will be making it happen, but I am excited about the possibilities. (I will dedicate a future post to disabilities in Mongolia, cultural perceptions, and programs available.)

            IST also offered an opportunity to catch-up with friends that are on the other side of the country, and share ideas. It seems that everybody is in the same boat. The first few months can be hard for CYD volunteers because of language barriers. Since our focus is not teaching English, we often have concepts that are difficult to express with limited language skills, but everyone seems excited about someday being capable to speak fluently… or maybe just better.

            The Park Hotel is the first opportunity that I have had to enjoy a hot shower with unlimited water. It was amazing. In one moment, it feels like six months of baths is washed away and cleanliness enjoyed. Needless to say, I took a shower every day at the hotel.

~Caleb 

Collectivism - Cultural Differences #3

During our orientation days which seem ages ago (it’s been over 6 months!!!), we were told that Mongolia is a collectivist culture, which is common in many Asian countries. Our facilitators asked us a series of questions and we arranged ourselves on a scale to see where we fell on ideas of individualism or collectivism. The majority of us were on the individualism side, naturally, since that’s what America’s all about.

                                             

What do you think of when you hear the word collectivism? I think most of us turn to extremes. Oh, in that culture, each person must not care about themselves at all. Or, they must not be very independent. Or, they must be really selfless to care about everyone else more than themselves. But there’s a scale. Not everything is black and white, and Mongolia definitely falls into the gray in this category, leaning more towards the collectivist side.

                                              

In terms of individualism, Caleb and I have posted a lot about teachers competitions. Competitions for teachers seem to never end. There’s always another competition around the corner if there’s not one going on at the moment. For example, last week, all the teachers at my school had a teaching competition. They teach one 40 minute lesson and are observed by training managers (who act sort of as vice principals). They first compete against other teachers in their department (foreign languages, math, science, etc.) and then all the department winners compete against each other. Then (I think) those winners will compete against other schools’ winners. There is a lot of focus on doing your best and winning these competitions.

Academic Olympics is also a huge deal here, although this won’t be in full swing until the spring. Teachers will work with one or two of the best students in a subject to develop them as best as possible to compete in these competitions. Again, this starts at the city level, then aimag (province), then country. The teachers also compete in Olympics in their field. I have already felt pressure on having my counterparts win the English Olympics for our city. Part of what I’m doing at my school is working with my CPs who will be participating to get them to winning standards. It’s a big deal.

Outside of competitions, Mongolians have a lot of pride for their professions. Teachers, police officers, government workers, etc. are all looked upon with prestige. These types of professions receive individual awards or recognition all the time. Mongolians are also very confident in their ability to work, no matter what the work. There is a lot of emphasis on exceeding as an individual.

                                                            

On the other side of things, Mongolians do exhibit a collectivist life style. I know many of my fellow PCVs have been asked by their counterparts, neighbors, or coworkers if they are afraid to live alone. Mongolians don’t live alone. And they don’t do things alone. Generally, from what I’ve seen, alone time for Mongolians is not appreciated as it is in America. Whenever my counterparts’ husbands go out of town, they always go stay with their parents or in-laws. They never just chill at the house. Once, my counterpart told me her husband had to work one night unexpectedly, and she had to scramble to figure out where she would go to stay that night.

During PST, I found that all the family members sleep together. With the houses I saw, this made sense. There were only a few rooms in each house. But I imagine that even if there were many rooms, the whole family would still sleep together in one room. It’s just what they do. It’s a slumber party every night! With your entire family…

A few weeks ago, I attended a teachers meeting at my school. It lasted about an hour and a half, and the first 45 minutes were dedicated to people asking for money for whatever reason. The first person wasn’t someone who worked at our school, but she was asking for money to help pay for her child’s surgery. The next person was a worker at our school, and her child was also having a surgery. Our social worker also announced, reading off of an email, that a construction worker who was working on a new building in our city, fell from the scaffolding and was seriously injured. Someone was also asking for money for his multiple surgeries.

What would we do in America if this happened? Most likely, tell ourselves that everyone has problems, and maybe give a couple dollars or nothing to each cause. But this isn’t how they roll here. The teachers took a good amount of time hashing out each situation, and every teacher agreed to give some amount from their paycheck for each person. Can you imagine? If every teacher from our city did this (there are 5 schools here), that would pay for a good chunk of the surgery. It feels like America does this in a sense, but the cause usually has to be something really meaningful to the person. This whole situation seemed very collectivist to me and is one of the bigger differences I’ve noticed between American and Mongolian culture.

                                     

I know this is a little late, but Giving Tuesday is December 1^st this year. Being as it is the holiday season, perhaps you will consider giving a little donation to a cause that means something to you. If nothing comes to mind, please consider one of these, which all have personal significance to me:

http://railroadpark.org/support.html

https://donate.peacecorps.gov/donate/

http://www.awrc.org/

http://www.tigersfortomorrow.org/

http://www.makeyourselffoundation.org/

https://www.arborday.org/

I’ve been reading a book of the Dalai Lama’s teachings. It’s good stuff. Here’s a couple quotes that seem relevant to this post:

“Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them, humanity cannot survive.”
― Dalai Lama XIV

“If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito.”

― Dalai Lama XIV

                                                          

Happy holidays!!!

~Sally